Diamonds for his mistress?

Research reveals that it’s the mistress and not the missus that gets the best Christmas gift

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As the holidays approach, new research from the world’s premier online affair service, AshleyMadison.com, reveals there will be little festive cheer for wives. Cheating husbands would rather spoil their mistresses and scrimp on their spouses when it comes to gifts.

The survey, which questioned 5,475 actively-cheating husbands from across SA, was commissioned to help AshleyMadison.com gain greater understanding of male infidelity.

It reveals that the husbands buy their wives technology items that they “need” – those things they’ve been wanting all year but may not have been in the budget. These items include technical gadgets such as an iPad’s to keep them entertained, or pampering hampers like a spa voucher to get them out for the day.

On the other hand they spoil their mistresses with lavish gifts such as jewellery, lingerie and fashion accessories (things that women don’t usually splurge on for themselves).

Sneaky men also opted to pay for their mistresses’ presents in cash to avoid an incriminating paper trail while others admitted that they weren’t looking forward to the festive period with their spouse and family. They claimed they would also be seeing their mistress for clandestine romance.

The majority of these cheating men would be sneaking out on Christmas Eve and the Day of Goodwill but reserving Christmas Day for the family. 32% opted to wait until after the holidays, whilst 8 % would sneak out on New Year’s Eve, and 9% on New Year’s Day.

“For most cheaters, the holidays are very stressful and full of anxiety, anticipating the time required to spend with their spouse and family without their extramarital outlet,” says Noel Biderman, founder and CEO of AshleyMadison.com. “We also find that this prolonged period of time places enormous strain on relationships particularly for those suffering from marital problems and we are never surprised by the enormous increase in our registration after the holidays.”

www.AshleyMadison.com was created in Canada on February 13th, 2002. Founder Noel Biderman, known in the international press as the “King of Infidelity”, developed a new social network concept that is the second fastest growing in the world after Facebook. Currently, the site has over 16 million users in 24 countries including over 120,000 in South Africa.

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